A Friend's Bravery
by V. Sourweather
Summary: Pansy Parkinson is not usually brave, and yet she faces her cowardice just to help a friend. [Written for QLFC - Round 10]


_Summary:__ Pansy Parkinson is not usually brave, and yet she faces her cowardice just to help a friend._

_Rating:__ T_

_Warnings:__ Violence, character deaths_

_Disclaimer:__ I don't own anything, everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't make any money out of this story._

_.:._

_Written for:_

_**[QLFC - Round 10]**_

_**Team:**__ Tutshill Tornados_

_**Position:**__ Keeper_

_**Prompt:**__ Kill Pansy Parkinson_

_Word count (without the A/N): 1,358 words_

* * *

_**A Friend's Bravery: **_**Pansy Parkinson**

There are a lot of things Pansy Parkinson can be defined as. Disloyal isn't one of them. She's a strange kind of loyal, but she knows she won't let any of her friends down. Least of all Draco, because it's not a secret for anyone that she cares about him.

That's why she stays behind in the castle, trying to find him. She listened to his conversation with Crabbe and Goyle, and the only thing she understood is that he led them to a hidden room she hadn't even known about before.

Now she's searching for them, looking through every inch of the broken castle that used to be her home. She can't allow anyone to see her, and that doesn't make her task any easier.

She can't find Draco, or Crabbe, or Goyle, and worry starts to gnaw at her heart. She curses Draco for being such a trouble finder, and she hopes that they're not lying dead somewhere. It can happen to anyone. She knows it; she's already had to avoid countless spells. They weren't aimed at her, but she's still scared. Scared that one of her former classmates will see her and try to hurt her, because really, she has no reason to be here. She doesn't want to hurt them, doesn't want to hurt any of them, but they can't know that, and she's just so _scared_.

Perhaps they'll call her a coward one day, but she's never been very brave anyway. Or perhaps she's demonstrated her own kind of bravery, and that's always something.

* * *

"_Draco, you can't possibly think about staying in the castle… can you?" Pansy asks her friend, her voice wavering. "People will die; people will be killed there."_

"_There's something I need to do," Draco responds evasively._

"_There's—There's something you need to do?" she repeats, her voice hysterical (but she doesn't even care if they notice it or not). "What could be more important than saving your life?"_

"_A lot of things," he seethes. "Tell me you're not that self-centered. Tell me you're not thinking of your needs before the Dark Lord's needs."_

"_Tell me you're not that devoted to him," she opposes immediately, her voice echoing through the deserted Common Room. "I'm not… self-centered, like you said. I'm just not interested in risking my life and watching my classmates die."_

_Draco stays silent, and she looks into the icy depths of his grey eyes. There's something there, and she needs to know what it is, so she asks him. "Why are you acting so defensively, Draco?"_

_He doesn't answer, and she knows. He's acting that way because he has something to hide, and she can't stand the fact that he told her off for hiding away when he's probably about to do the exact same thing._

"_I have to… I have to get my wand back," he confesses._

_At that moment, Crabbe and Goyle appear. She glares at them and crosses her arms. They've always had the worst timing ever. Not that they're good at anything except being violent. They're even worse than her in Draco's eyes, and that's saying something (to her disappointment)._

"_Why did you want us here, Malfoy?" Crabbe asks, and his voice doesn't waver. "We have—"_

"_I need you to come with me. I need my wand back, and then— then you can fight all you want."_

"_Where is it?" Pansy asks. "I'll come with you too. I—"_

"_No. I don't want you to come. You'll only slow us down, Parkinson."_

_Maybe it's the war that's about to end her life as she knew it, maybe it's her apprehension, but she feels her eyes fill with tears. She fights against them and laughs a little, humorlessly._

"_I see," she whispers. She wants to hate him for what he's just said, but she can't. They both know she can't, and maybe that's why he's looking at her without an ounce of pity. "I'll—I'll just be on my way then."_

_And she leaves. But she knows she'll go after him anyway. It doesn't really matter what he thinks. All she knows is that she won't let him down, and perhaps she'll be considered brave for it._

* * *

Her throat clenches when she sees someone lying cold and dead on the floor. Blonde hair… But it's not Draco. She would know if it was him. She would... Right?

She walks closer to him, and she doesn't realize her mistake before it's too late and her heart soars up in her throat. She has just enough time to step away from the body before she retches. It hurts her throat, and she already knows she'll have the taste of vomit in her mouth for hours after this.

She doesn't know his name. She's just aware that she's seen him cross her path in the Hogwarts' corridors more than once. She also knows that he was a Mudblood and that she hates everything he stands for, but still… He didn't deserve to die so young, and he's leaving a little brother behind, and a part of her heart she didn't even know was there breaks.

It makes her sick that her people, the people who fight for a cause she's always believed in, for a Lord she's meant to follow, can do that to children. It makes her almost want to cry, or to scream, or just do something. Instead, she takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes.

It's dangerous. She's on a battlefield, she hasn't forgotten that. Just one second later, she opens them, and she sees _him_ across from the dead body of the younger boy. She wants to cry out in shock, but then she sees the haunted look in his eyes, and she notices that he's only followed by Goyle.

She hurries towards him, dodges a red light that could have stunned her, and when she finally reaches him, she puts her hands on his cheeks.

"What happened?" she asks hurriedly. "Where's Crabbe?"

His breath hitches, and he jerks out of her grasp, his eyes staring at her like he doesn't even know her. And then, she sees the exact moment when he recognizes her. He sighs quietly and apologizes, and then he grabs her wrist and starts to haul her down the hallway.

"Draco, what are you doing?" Pansy exclaims.

He doesn't stop or look back at her, but she glances back to see if Goyle is still following them. Goyle might not be the brightest of them all, but she isn't either, and he still is one of the closest things she has to a friend.

"Draco," she says again. "What are you—?"

"We have to go," he answers shortly. "We have to get away from here."

"Get away? People have seen us. Death Eaters too… If we leave now, we'll be considered deserters, traitors. And we both know what the Dark Lord does to traitors. He kills them."

"Not if he can't find us."

"You really think we can escape him?" Pansy asks, completely bewildered. "He's the most powerful wizard alive. How could a band of ragtag teenagers escape him?"

He stays silent, because there's no credible answer to that question. But he doesn't let her go, and she doesn't have the heart or the courage to fight him, so she follows along with Goyle.

Everything is a blur, and she can't really dodge any spell that could hurt her. She doesn't even see who's running in front of her right now; she just focuses on Draco, and that is her mistake. If she would have looked better, focused more, she would have seen that the person running from something in front of her was Cho Chang, and she would have heard the two words shouted by the Death Eater.

But she doesn't. And she doesn't even feel any pain when she falls. She just thinks that it's so stupid, that the spell wasn't even meant for her.

The last thing she hears is Draco screaming her name, the last thing she sees before everything goes black is Draco's eyes, and somehow, it makes it all better.


End file.
